Old story time - Long ago (like 1985?), in a game...
DM says, "the magic item your PC just put on is cursed, but it is a minor curse."
Player: "Arg! What's the bad news?"
DM, "It makes your eyes glow red in the dark, and dogs and small children of all races are afraid of you."
Player: "Ok, got that. But what's the curse? what's the bad part?"
DM says, "It makes your eyes glow red in the dark, and dogs and small children of all races are afraid of you."
Player: "But, what's the curse?"
DM: "that's the curse"
Player: "Huh?"
In the example above the Player thought the curse was Cool. The DM thought it was ... well, a curse.
Was it useful? well... the PC got a LOT of use out of the item, many-many fun RP encounters...
Sometimes curses are all in the eyes of the viewer...
Life reflects games...
"Ukrainian Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikov announced on Friday that his government had handed out 18,000 submachine guns and ammunition to civilians and militia fighters..."
As to passing out equipment to NPCs - yeah, been doing that sense we armed the Orcs in "G1 - Steading of the Hill Giant Chief" and started a slave revolt. One of them orcs dropped a hill giant with a spear we gave him... That was back in... gods... the 1980's? so yeah, been arming the NPCs for 40ish years now...
"Yuri Orlov: There are over 550 million firearms in worldwide circulation. That's one firearm for every twelve people on the planet. The only question is: How do we arm the other 11?"
Picture a starting band of PCs - all 1st level, organizing to go on their first adventure, and "an adventuring band (of halflings) pass through town"...
"Yeah kid, we picked this stuff off some orc bandits that jumped us. You can have your pick of it, to heavy for us to be dragging around and way to big - it'd fit you though I'm guessing. If you've got access to the spell Prestidigitation you might need it to get this stuff in shape to use, what with the blood stains and orc sweat..."
And after the "real adventurers" head out on their "quest to save the world" the PCs discover a map in the lining on a wooden shield that once belonged to the bandit leader...
I can remember a fight where the PCs just "Cake Walked" the fight. It involved a number of Kobolds in a ruined watch tower, and the PCs using sleep spells and grapples to beat them easily. Less then 10 HP taken in damage among the 5 PC. so they tie up the Kobolds, and gather up the loot and ... look it over.
Player #1: "What a bunch of C%$#P! Cheap, Small weapons, and wicker shields, 'food' I wouldn't feed my dog, rotten leathers, and COPPER PIECES! What the h&%%, I'm not loading any of this s&^%t on my horse to haul it outta here." off stomps PC #1
the rest of the party also shake their head in disgust and mount up. Rides away into the sunset.
Just then Player #1 starts to giggle "Talk about insulting. Think about it from the view of the kobolds. Not only are they not dangerous enough for us to kill 'em, but we didn't even want ANY of their treasure!"
Player #2 "yeah, (gollum voice), my presious, why didn't they take my presious" laugh.
Old story - from long ago, and actually, we didn't roleplay out of the combat... but it's kind of along this line...
My bard/linguist - used to communicate with the intelligent creatures summoned by someone else...
PC #1 to newly summoned earth elemental: "so, Rocky, we meet again?!"
Rocky: "Ha! You again?! What is dis, like 2 times this week?" Takes swing, misses...
PC #1: "Yeah, we've been busy lately." Uses a wand to cast Prot. Evil, "And how's your lady? and the little one... Chip isn't it?"
Rocky: "You still got dat wand t'ing? T'aught iddud be use't up by now... Chip's doing ok, starting up his own Rock Band!" moves on to attack another PC.
PC #1: "Hay! that's great! always good to have an artist in the family." glances down at wand in hand, and following Rocky to the next PC to tap him with the wand, "Well, it does come with 50 charges - and I don't get much use out of it any more, what with moving on to Year of the Serpent and not so much World Wound stuff..."
PC #2: "Dang it! Would you stop chatting up everything we meet?! That's the problem with having a Exchange Linguist Bard in the group... changing every good fight into a 'diplomacy encounter'... "
Rocky: "sheesh, w'at's wid dis guy? 'E's way to serious!"
I can recall running a game long ago where I felt bad about the amount of treasure (or lack thereof) that I had given out in an earlier session. So I placed a large gem (a ruby) in the hall for the players to find. Simple enough, they'd get instant cash to cover what I had shorted them before. For in game rational, I reasoned that another adventuring party (they knew there were others exploring the same ruins they were) had dropped it as they left - and had not noticed it fall out of their bag.
So, as the heroes approached a intersection they caught sight of a "red twinkle" on the floor ahead. Out came the detect spells, the rogue checking for traps, Paladin doing Detect Evil, the works. Ultimately, even discovering that it was a valuable gem, they elected to bypass that section of tunnel to avoid approaching it. They could come up with NO REASON FOR IT TO BE THERE. It HAD to be a trap, and one they couldn't figure out, so it was best to bust a hole in a couple stone walls to bypass the intersection entirely... leaving that ruby on the ground.
Months later, they would still point out how they could sometimes "foil my evil plans" by "avoiding the bait"...
This was in a PFS game, so most of the players didn't know each other before (or after) sitting down at the table together...
I was running a bit of an over-the-top Face character... and so, not wanting to upset anyone, I check with the rest of the players to see if it was Ok for me to just "Talk our way out" of some of the upcoming encounters. They say "no fighting is ok" so...
In the scenario, we are presented with a series of missions to do before the final fight with the BBE (as is often the case, these were designed to wear down our resources and "soften us up" for the final fight).
First mission: We're given a mission to ambush a shipment of goods from just outside of town. We want what's in the wagon, and aren't real concerned with how we get it. Normally this would be an excuse to just "murder-hobo" the encounter, but my PC does things on a different path...So I turn to the other players and say, "let's just walk right up, tell them we're with the 'Home Office' here to pick up the shipment, and walk away with it."
Several players chuckle and say "yeah, sure..." figuring it's a novel way to start a fight. One player even insists on hanging back in the woods out of sight and getting ready for the fight. He's a fighter/rogue after all...And here's what we do.
Spells cast prior to the encounter: Aura of the Unremarkable and Glibness
...and so we walk plainly down the road from town to the camp site. We have some GREAT In Character Role Playing for 10 minutes or so game time...getting to know the guards and how they were set up to defend the shipment. "Great job you guys have done! We'll take it from here. I'll be sure to mention you in my report - how exactly do you spell your name? M-O-O-K-#-4? Great! oh, do you think you guys can hitch the wagon up for me? And my guards and I will be on our way and you can get some well deserved time off. I'll turn the wagon and team in later."
The Saves for the Aura were DCs 22+, and Bluff rolls (Taking 10) 60+.
The player in the woods responded "60 WHAT?" when I gave the judge my bluff number. So I told him "Well, I could take 20 and get a 70+, but I'm only 7th level so I can only do that once per day...and we might need it later". I even tipped the mooks each with a token good for a "special service" in the local house of easy virtue... and departed with names and descriptions of all the Aspis Agents in the transport detail...
Later in the game the same player was shocked when I took 10 on a Perception check and got a 12... esp. after I explained that it was a class skill and I had a rank in it. "Yeah, this PC is built for social settings."
Perhaps the best part was looking around the ball room at all the other groups playing the same scenario and realizing we had finished the first encounter in record time, having spent two spells and gotten the McGuffin and a wagon and team of horses...
how to solve the problem of "Less fighting = Less looting"....
I think you are coming at this from the wrong direction.
Kill one of the PCs and point out how much money went into paying for the Raise Dead... Wait, you mean we could have just made a bluff check and walked by that encounter? So, we got the loot from a few "bad guys" and now we have a bunch of Orc weapons and armor to fence - how much does that stuff weigh? This only cost us the diamond dust for one raise dead, 2 potions of Cure Moderate Wounds, a dozen magic arrows and 6 castings of remove disease... not to mention that we can't go back to that town 'cause we killed half the town guards.
How much did that last fight burn up in consumables? Potions of Lesser Restoration, Scrolls of Fly, Vials of Anti-toxin, wait - when the Evil Mooks turned the Rust Monster loose on the Fighter and it ate his platemail and sword? eeek!
Yeah - there's the problem of "Less fighting = Less looting"... but that is sort of related to the problem "Less fighting = Less costs"....
Using simulacrums to keep the party on the trail to
1) kill off her rivals in the Way (Vrood, the Grey Friar, the Witches of Barstoi, and Lucimar as well as just generally doing a bit of "house cleaning").
2) retrieve the Raven's Head (which she knew thru divinations would be recovered by Heros - so she get's them to hand it to her "for safe keeping").
3) Distract/Placate the Order of the Pal. Eye - getting them to assist in getting Her to the right place at the right time, with everything she needs...
4) Thus using the strengths of those against her to assist in her ultimate victory... (insert BBE speech here)! (Evil Laugh!)
In other words - leading to the big reveal at the end where they find out they have been played all time, and they assisted in bringing back the Tyrant, and creating his new Queen... unless they can stop her...
I have actually seen several instances of "needing a back-up weapon" in the game.
Both with being disarmed (having a Judge who actually knows how to do that matters though - if the guy running the NPC doesn't know HOW to do it, it's not likely that the monster is going to do it) and with finding yourself in a grapple (or worse yet, swallowed).
anecdotes:
1) I have had a PC in the situation of being swallowed by a monster that the rest of the party killed - and then I found I had no way to cut my way out. No dagger... had to tell the Judge that my guy was going to chew his way out of the beasty... Then I got to talk strongly to my companions about leaving me in the thing while they sorted treasure... yeah - not going to do that again. Every one of my PCs get's a dagger now.
2) While running a game, I had one of the PCs in the mouth of a Ramoraz and was about to swallow this Halfling Greatsword Fighter, when he killed the monster with a dagger he had in Spring Loaded Wrist Sheath... Glorious game. The dagger melted on the blow that killed the Ice Worm...
Link to an older thread that sort of relates to this...
"A melee characters should have a back up weapon and spellcasters have a backup spell component pouch/holy symbol in case something happens to the primary." - Painlord
Heck, I can remember one game where a young lady (9 year old) who seldom talked during our game, but then one encounter she went first. It was during an "Ambush by Mooks in an Ally" encounter early in a game. Her Sorcerer won Initiative and so when asked by the judge what she wanted to do, she said in a very soft voice "I'll scare them away".
The exchange went something like this...
Judge: "so that would be an Intimidate skill check. So what do you say to them...?"
Sorcerer: (after a bit of 'deer in the headlights' time, everyone is watching her...) says in a very small voice "I wave my knife at them and say Go Away or I'll stick you!"
Judge: "Roll your Intimidate..."
Sorcerer: "19 plus my 5 gives me a ...ah..."
Me - next in initiative and running a Bard with a great Intimidate, do a BAD THING and jump right saying I'll "Aid Another"...: "and I'll aid her play (I have an auto aid on Intimidate) by pointing at the Rangers Snake animal companion and saying (change to my PC voice) 'see what happened to the last guy who didn't do what she told him? If I were you, I'd fade away home now... '"
Some of the other players Ready Actions incase a fight starts...
And the mooks faded away into the night on their Initiatives....
You know, I'll bet that young lady didn't remember the +2 I gave her - but she stole the line "...you should fade away home now..." and used it in later games. In fact, I'm pretty sure she practiced that at home... In her 9 year old little girl voice... It was (IS!) creepy when she repeated it again later...
And I think her Sorcerer put ranks in Intimidate next time she leveled... and looked into taking the spell cause fear.
Good day to you! Let me introduce myself - I am Giamo Casanunda!
My card
Business Card:
Giamo Casanunda
World’s Second-Greatest Lover (I do try harder)
Finest Swordsman Soldier of Fortune
Outrageous Liar Art Critic
Heart Warming Physician Stepladders Repaired
As a Matchmaker by profession, I would normally ask 'are you currently involved in a long term relationship?', but I see that you are actually looking for a Diety! Clearly that is "Looking for a Long Term Relationship!"
Wanting to get a little more of the Devine in your life? Well son, have a beer while we discuss the merits of Cayden - the Lucky Drunk.
Before his ascension, he was an adventurer much like yourself - so you have a lot in common. Having a deity that can relate to you has it's advantages! And being C/N to his C/G would add a little spice to the relationship - I know, as I am C/N myself!
But here! I promised you a beer! I'll produce my holy symbol ...
(a beer mug in hand, Giamo proceeds to cast Create Water, producing beer - Cayden's Finest!)
- I'll tell ya, a mans got to have a lot of respect for a deity whose holy symbol is a frothy mug of heaven!
These are actually some "Designer Label" Fashion ideas...
Don't be the last in your adventuring group to sport a bit of "Flash" - hurry to the exclusive design house "The Pleasure of Fashion" in the Ivy District, Absalom, to get a custom creation by that master of fashion herself, Katisha Lee, enchanting fashion designer.
Resent releases from "The Pleasure of Fashion" seen include,
"The Hot Cloak", a black velvet day cloak, lined in the finest red silk, "Flames" tastefully placed in the lining so as the cloak moves with the wearer the flames flash from around her body, giving that devilish look recently seen in the court of Egorian.
"Flaming Sword of Justice", rumor has it that a Andoran Eagle Knight of some note has been seen using an enchanted blade, a frost weapon, which seems to burst into flame when drawn in combat.
"Fire of the Sun", a golden holy symbol of the Dawnflower herself, set with fire rubies, shrouded in cold "Flames"
Cast on a sterling silver tongue ring - "tastefully" understated, to give one that "Fiendish Smile".
Gnomish skullcaps (available both in velvet and in the more duraable armored versions... Talk about "flame colored hair"
or perhaps do a hairnet, created from the finest silk threads, colored the same as your hair, so it can be worn against your scalp with your natural hair passing thru it, with the continual flames cast on the silk. The flames would appear to come from your scalp!
"Hot Seat", a saddle blanket for my mule. So I can ride into town on a flaming a... mule... never mind.
Everyone knows the trick of putting C.F. on an burned out Ioun stone... so why not on an active stone? No one will even think to check to see if the "Ioun Torch" is anything other than just an item to provide light...
these are but a few of the resent items - surely there will be others!
(All items created with the spell continual flame cast on Master Work Items in the highest quality!)
a modification of a Glyph of Warding cast on a metal fixture what is then sold (in groups) thru your local "Magic Home Depot"...
"Fire Sprinkler" - When attached to a ceiling, and when a fire larger than a torch is in it's AOE, it triggers the Glyph which casts a Create Water at Caster Level 5 - delivering 10 gallons of water in "a downpour".
Or use a slightly higher level spell and have the Glyph trigger a Sleet Storm (40' radius, duration 1 rd/level) that extinguishes torches and small fires in the area.
I expect there are bits of bag to bear the spell in the burst remains of the T-bag.
this poses an interesting question then...
What part of a object is the spell thrown on? When an object (in this case a tanglefoot bag) "comes apart" - counting as destroyed - does a spell (silence in the original example) cast on it effect one or more of the component parts that result from destruction? What determines which part of the original object is the spells Target?
If we cast light on a stick, and then brake the stick in two, does one or both of the resulting "stick parts" have the light spell still active on it?
I guess this is the wrong area of the boards to ask this question, and that it should be referred to "Rules"... so I guess I'm not really looking for an answer here. Sorry.
What I would normally rule as the GM in this case would be to have the spell in question end when the Target it is cast on is destroyed (in the case of the tanglefoot bag that would be when it is thrown and "comes apart"). It is just simpler to end it rather than have progressively smaller and smaller component parts of the original target carrying the original spell.
(Though I do like the image of some Alchemist dissolving an everburning torch in acid, then distilling the Acid away, in order to create a free-floating Continual Flame spell that is cast on a "bit" of the original torch. Say a single hydrogen atom... that sheds light in a 20 foot radius...)
IIRC, that was explicitly allowed in a previous edition of D&D, but it's not possible in Pathfinder.
I've seen silence cast on an arrow or crossbow bolt as a way of silencing a caster outside of the spell's range. Either shoot the caster (if you're confident about hitting, and want to do some damage at the same time) or at the caster's square.
encountered a BBE who cast it on a tanglefoot bag and then thru that at the caster...
these was some question about the fact that the T-bag actually still being an object that could have the spell cast on it after it hits and bursts - but it was in the scenario so we went with it...
Long ago in a scenario a group of (lower level) PCs encountered Shadows (incorporeal undead) and things were looking very grim. We had no magic weapons and it looked like we were going to have to "flee for our lives!"... then I realized that I had (and could use) a wand of Cure Light Wounds - and whipped it out. The Ranger saw me do this and copied my action with his wand, and... it turns out all the PCs had wands (yeah PFS!), and all but one of us could use them. Went from a "flee for our lives!" situation to an encounter that we could handle easily.
Here is a story about a time I used a spell in an unexpected way... and a funny "you do what?" story at the same time...
Party is getting badly beat up in a deeper darkness and four of us are in a cluster. One PC down (neg HP) with a cleric over him, another PC in front and my Arcane Trickster beside... the 4th square of the box has a Bad Guy in it.
Me: "I yell 'Down Elevator!' and cast create pit under us"
Judge & Players: "You do... what?"
Me: "Cast create pit, centered here" pointing at the center of the group of figures. "40' deep".
My companions didn't even blink, trusting me. It's was great!
Me: "When we fall out of the darkness, I'll feather fall my friends and I, and watch the Bad Guy go on past." Roll dice. "He takes 17 HP from the fall".
thou it seems now that feather fall would require a Concentration check of 21 to work... something we missed at the time...
Player: "I use Mage Hand to pick up the items on the table..."
GM: "You can lift everything except the dagger..."
Player: "Got a magic dagger here people..."
2) Going to be fighting Harpies in your future? other sonic attacks? Buy a Potion of blindness/deafness, and Drink it. As the caster (drinker) you can dismiss the spell any time you want, and in the mean time you can't hear the Harpies (or anything else for that mater...).
3) Reduce Person to boost Stealth skills (+4 size bonus and +1 for the DX bump). The DX bump can also help with DX based skills (like Disable Device). if the target is small to begin with (Halfling or Gnome), use it to switch the skill "Climb" to a DX based skill, as Tiny creatures use DX to Climb
4) spider climb... to ride on the bottom of a flying carpet, while someone else uses the top.
5 Vanish... to let your prone friend stand up and get away from the monster without suffering AOOs.... works real well from a wand.
6. Light... used to signal timing on something. "Here's a light spell on a coin. Wait till the light goes out, then..." and when you are ready for her to do "it", cast the light again, and the first one goes out.
7. Create Water - useful for cleaning, and can expose some otherwise hard-to-find secrets entries/pits easily. Also useful for locating Invisible creatures (like packets of powder - YMMV), and putting fires out. Cast it a bunch and flood a room - but come back the next day and it's all gone!
8. Detect spells used thru doors and walls less than 1' thick stone. Does the room on the other side of the door contain undead/magic/evil/marmots (ok, maybe not marmots...)
9. Ray of Frost - Frosted mugs in the local tavern. Ice in your drink... Need to move something heavy? Splash water on the floor and zap! some into an Ice slide to make it easier to slide.
10. Disrupt Undead - Is that body across the way a undead creature? Pling it from here and see.
11. message - order drinks from across a (loud!) tavern...
12. Prestidigitation - SO MANY USES! No one can ever call you, or your willing allies, dirty again. And, like many illusion spells, only limited by the user's imagination. Need to keep your friends from
spoilered:
reading EXPLOSIVE RUNES!!!
? Just "soil" them and relax. Unless your friends have a fetish about cleaning things....
Use Detect Thoughts to get information from prisoners -
Katisha: "Who sent you to kill us?"
Mook: "You'll never make me talk!"
Kat: "Where did you first meet this masked man?"
Mook: "huh?"
Kat: "How much did he pay you? "
Mook "Hay! that's not fair!"
Kat: "and where did you put the money?"
Mook "Now wait, that MY money!"
Kat: "Where were you going to meet him after the job?"
Mook "La-la-la-la, I can't hear you!!"
My wife often runs arcane casters, and she's fond of unusual tactics with invisibility
Picture this:
A rogue in the front of the party listening at a door hears something, so my wife slides her Sorcerer forward and says "be sure to act surprised!" and casts invisibility on the door. Says to the judge "Our light shines into the room, while we look surprised, what do we see? do we have to make a bluff check?"
I'm hoping she does this sometime to a caster who drops a fireball on us... that blows up on the invisible door. She has had a Mook charge us... into the door. Her comment was "that's gonna leave a mark!" we never did find out if she meant on the door or the mook...
"Yang Kyoungjong (Korean: 양경종) is the name of a Korean soldier who, according to some historians, fought in the Imperial Japanese Army, the Soviet Red Army, and later the German Wehrmacht during World War II. He is, to date, the only soldier in recent history thought to have fought on three sides of a war, and this status has earned him recognition." .. yeah, "Press Ganged" three times...
I can remember long ago, before THAC0, when Druids were a monster
(like Orcs and goblins and Gnolls and... other creatures) that worked with or where EVIL, and therefore where killed on sight. Anyone actually working with them was an EVIL creature and Paladins and Right Minded Persons would fight them... and the world was a simpler place.
Then we let a few of them into polite society - after all the argument went, they are NEUTRAL (which was a "new" alignment then), so we let them into "civilization" and soon Players could actually create Druid PCs and all was Good with the world again and life was simpler... After all, we still have evil Orcs and Goblins and... stuff to fight!
Then we let a few of them Half-Orcs into polite society, into "civilization" and soon it came to pass that Players could actually create Half-Orc PCs, and they joined the adventuring party...
But that was OK, after all, Goblins and Gnolls were still EVIL and "Paladins and Right Minded Persons would fight them... and the world was a simpler place".
But you know I worry that the next thing you know, we'll be letting Players create Goblin PCs and we'll have to let them into polite society too, along with the Half-Orcs and Druids ... into "civilization" and Players will actually create ... wait... wow...
old guy wheels his chair back to his room to ponder the simpler days gone by...
I have played in a group of 4 Bards (very different Archetypes and actually very balanced with diverse abilities).
but I have also played in a group of all Alchemist - two friends and I have run a team of 3 Alcemists... each a different element race (Ifrit, Oread, Sylph) we were "Earth, Wind and Fire"...
Our Tank is Earth (Beastmorph w/Feral Mutigen, and boosted strength)
Our "Rogue" & "Healing skills" is Wind (Crypt Breaker/Chirurgeon alchemist)
and I'm the Face (Grenadier alchemist, with lots of social skills).
We all can do healing (wands mostly) and we all have bombs for ranged energy damage, and Extracts for spells... and lots of skill points (being Int based PCs...).
(We used to have an Undine with us, but he doesn't play anymore... he's "all wet")
We've played this group in PFS up thru 10th level (so the Chirurgeon got Breath of Life), and they seem to work pretty well at all the levels up to there. Each very much unique and very much part of the team...
a modification of a Glyph of Warding cast on a metal fixture what is then sold (in groups) thru your local "Magic Home Depot"...
"Fire Sprinkler" - When attached to a ceiling, and when a fire larger than a torch is in it's AOE, it triggers the Glyph which casts a Create Water at Caster Level 5 - delivering 10 gallons of water in "a downpour".
Or use a slightly higher level spell and have the Glyph trigger a Sleet Storm (40' radius, duration 1 rd/level) that extinguishes torches and small fires in the area.
Starbursts candy. Colors helped tell which enemy was which and players ate what they killed.
wow... did you play at my table back in LG days? I have actually be using Starbursts for Monsters so long that my Daughter (born in 1989) grew up calling them "Monsters". In fact, her son calls them "Monsters"...
We actually also used jellybeans for goblins (and other mooks) way back in 1st ED. D&D days, and that's when we invented "you kill it, you eat it"... and why the Red goblins always got shot and the black liquorice ones always seemed to be the ones taken captive...
Talk to your GM - sometimes they'll rule that you can Take 10 in those instances when you (and Diago) and even I would rule that you cannot. (A perfect example of this is Taking 10 to ID a magic item - most GMs I have played with allows this, even though technically you can't Take 10 while concentration to maintain the Detect Magic spell... ) .
By the same token, you should also check with the GM when you are SURE they would rule that it is allowed, just to be sure that this is not one of those instances of a time when "for purposes of Drama and Pacing" they are requiring a Dice Roll.
Ok, here's a GOOD story of using the Rule of Cool - it's a bit long so I am going to Spoiler it - it has some spoilers for the PFS scenarios First Steps and Confirmation in it.
First Steps and Confirmation spoilers:
I'd like to mention two games I was involved with a while ago, two with an odd connection - First Steps and then Confirmation...
The First Steps was run by a beginning Judge - her first game (our 13 year old judge - with the next youngest person at the table was her mom - but that is another story). Mostly it was a lot of fun... the judge really liked Ledford and the lack of complex tactics for that character. He takes an ax, goes berserk and just start hitting things. She liked him so much so that she built a "look alike" character for him and took it into the next game as a PC - so we played Confirmation with a Halfling Barbarian with a great ax named Ledford (the halfling, not the ax).
Anyway - second game was a lot of fun - and the final blow was glorious!
The PCs are rushing out of the cave to save the little halfling lady and shooting at the Big Bad. Ledford (from the back of the party) moves out of the cave up to the difficult area (the trees), and draws the potion of Feather Step (from the back pack). Next round he drinks the potion and moves up to 10' short of the stream. Then the third round he charges across - jumping the stream (I was running the game and wasn't sure if he could charge and jump - but heck, I'm not going to stop the game at this point and look it up! So - Rule of Kewl and all that) so over the stream he jumps! - right into combat with the BBE. Big Bad swings an AOO and misses "the Mustache with Feet". The little guy rolls his first (and only) nat "20" of the night, and just barely confirms the crit (thanks in part to the Bards singing). This, backed up with the damage from the missile fire (Force Missiles from the Evoker Wiz and arrows/bolts from the other players) and the BBE is down - dead.
So yeah, the male Halfling barbarian charged the monster and put it down with one Ax blow! Saving the female halfling bard.... fade to next scene (hay! the barbarian is run by a 13 year old girl! So clean up those thoughts you gamer geeks you!)
And thus the Big Bad from the old intro game killed the Big Bad from the second intro game... and just to finish it out, I bothered to look the rule up. Nope - you can't charge if there is anything like a stream in the way... except for the Rule of Kewl!
sorry for the Thread Necro ... I have a related question and would like to tap into the vast pool of knowledge here (see what I did there?)... anyway. I ran across Pressure Pills as another way to adapt to the depth, but is there anything else long term to protect vs. the effects of deep water (prevents the Pressure Damage for depths greater than 100 feet)?
Wake of the Watcher:
In "Wake of the Watcher" it looks like they have commoner humans at > than 100' depth for extended periods of time, as in years long. How are they not dead? is there rules for adapting to the depth?
so a couple of rules questions...
* are there rules for adapting long term to the depth?
* is there any other spells or items like Pressure Pills that protect vs. the damage from the depths?
a slightly approach to swearing I ran across in another novel was in a book titled Monster... one of the passing characters is a Demon (Succubas) that swears and it's all:
"Blessing this" and "Blessed to Heaven!" or "By the Light!" maybe "Creation!" - mostly religious swearing, but reversed.
It got my attention, and then made me grin. Cute idea. it's all in the delivery..."Faith, Hope & Chastity! What in Creation were you Blessed thinking!"
Or I could see cursing in a culture that viewed Eating the way we view most other bodily functions...
"Chocolate Marmalade PIE!", or "Oh, Fudge..." or even "You little Twinkie! I'm going to feed you a bacon sandwich... sideways! With extra mustard!" --
I might cast it on a Mook - sending him after the PC Druids Big Cat companion... SO that he scrambles over and hugs said kitty, and I might then slumber hex him...
This means that later, when he wakes up, he remembers unnaturally lustful thoughts (and actions) toward the Big Cat, just before he blacked out. Only to come to some time later, (and because we searched him while he as asleep) with his clothing in dis-array, with a happy lion sitting next to him purring.
Using Detect Thoughts to get information from prisoners -
Katisha: "Who sent you to kill us?"
Mook: "You'll never make me talk!"
Kat: "Where did you first meet this masked man?"
Mook: "huh?"
Kat: "How much did he pay you? "
Mook "Hay! that's not fair!"
Kat: "and where did you put the money?"
Mook "Now wait, that MY money!"
Kat: "Where were you going to meet him after the job?"
Mook "La-la-la-la, I can't hear you!!"
Well, I wouldn't be trying for a TPK, and there's always the chance the tank would nat 1.
Oh, I don't think we were in danger of a TPK - even removing the Tank and Kat (and later the Oracle), that left half the party to beat on the bad guys. Now, if they had gotten a Dominate to work on the Tank? that would have been TPK territory. I think one of the other players got a Protection from Evil on the Tank though... or some sort of protection like that.
So many players get hit with confusion and think 'attack nearest target' means they just make one attack. I've had to gently ask 'is one attack with your dagger really what your character would do when they normally sling scorching rays?' and rule they needed to do something else.
I definitely would have suggested Slow followed by Blindness on the tank.
oh agreed. Though Slow would have been problematic as the party had scattered a bit by then - though she could have used more than one I guess. And even with the Tank in the other room, the Spawn could have gotten swings on her while she moved thru them to get to the other room. Not sure it would have been that good a choice to use Blindness though, as the Tank would have a good Will save - and even swinging blind he could really hit. I would have suggested Hideous Laughter going after him... lower will save. Or just used Vanish on the Bad Guys - or even Haste.
all this is after the fact though...
I sort of attribute this entire story to the spell Dominate Person requiring the enemy caster to give orders, when they have no idea what my PC is capable of. So... maybe she should have gotten a new save (with a +2 bonus) when give the order to "Attack..." anything, as that is arguably being force to take actions against her nature - but where's the fun in that? "Attack my friends you say? With WHAT?" got the response "Your most damaging melee weapon!" so she went digging in her bag for a weapon...
I don’t know why the GM didn’t have her use her spells. We had a life oracle locally get dominated and proceed to use breath of life and heal on the enemy melee.
When next I see him I'll ask... though it might be another example of "combat focus" that so many players suffer from. "If it doesn't do damage, what good is it?"
That or he was out to spoil my "record" and get her to actually do real damage - I know the entire table paused, held their breath and watched my dice each time I rolled to hit with that dagger, ...And sighed when I couldn't roll high enough to scratch one of my teammates.
All-in-all it was great fun and a great story to remember... and tell again and again to my friends...
spells & Masterpieces:
We had already established that my PC was a little odd... When one player commented that at least she could inspire courage - she had to admit "I'm not that kind of bard darling! - Street Performer gives that up..."
Spells include Feather Fall, Liberating Command, Unbreakable Heart, Unnatural Lust, Hideous Laughter, Aura of the Unremarkable, Dispel Magic, Pyrotechnics, Slow, Haste, Good Hope, Blindness (maybe I could have used that on my fellow Pathfinders?)... yeah the Blindness - or maybe a Slow to undo the Haste she had handed out at the start of the combat.
She also has a number of Bardic Master pieces, but none of them really applied here... Triple Time, Dance of Kindled Desires, Symphony of the Elysian Heart, Pallavi of Nirvann's Blooming - this last would have been a major problem for the Vampire Bad Guys - so I'm guessing she didn't get it until after that game...100' radius of sunlight would have ended the fight I think...
Edit: Wait! Toz, where you asking about the spells on the Life Oracle that was "even less combat effect then Kat"? We were fighting Vampire Spawn (thus all the Dominates flying around), and they wouldn't have liked either Cures or BoL, or Channels for that matter. Though I am not sure if the Oracle had the BoL actually - but if he had it wouldn't have done the Undead much good.
are we out of funny game stories then?
heck, here's another old one...
I have a (Bard) "Face" PC who is very good at what she does, but she has almost no combat abilities. (I introduce her to the people at the table know as my Chalaixian Whip using "lady of the evening"). She OWNS face skills, and she can really buff, but she has never done a HP of damage to anything other than herself (she's 13th level now). I'm used to careful telling this to everyone at the table when I sit down and we go thru introductions.
.
Anyway, in the middle of a nasty encounter, the bad guys start tossing out Dominate Persons. Three saves later (plus one re-roll) and my lady is dominated and told to attack another PC.
Me: "What with?"
Judge "Do you have a weapon?"
Me "Ah... She's got a silvered spiked gauntlet - but it's really more jewelry. It only does 1d4-1, being silver. OH! And she has her whips - though those are really more of 'day job tools'...".
Judge "What, that's it? No other weapons?"
Me looking down at my character sheet frantically trying to come up with something ..."Wait! I've got a dagger written down here, so I must have one someplace ..." flipping sheets in the folder to my original equipment sheet. "Yeah! here it is! I've got a dagger! I bought it when I was first level. It must be in my pack someplace ..." I get an image of this lady digging in a shoulder bag muttering something about - "I know it's in here someplace..." as she yanks odd things out and tosses them over her shoulder.
All this while the Tank in the party is doing 50+ HP around the corner and out of sight of these Bad Guys.
So she takes out her dagger and trys a couple swings at the closest friend (and the Bad Guys take AOOs at her), with everyone cringing with me - afraid that I'm going to hit and spoil her "record" and do actual damage to someone!
A few rounds later and the Halfling Life Oracle in the party get's dominated and announces that he is even MORE combat useless than my harlot. "I've got a spear on my back, but I only do a 1d4-2..."
Tank in the next room - "76 points of damage with the crit..."
ok, in the game last night the PCs have a low level werewolf hireling (long story there) who helped them track down a group of Bad Guys...
In the combat, the werewolf hid around a corner and was waiting for the shooting to finish up when he noticed that one of the PCs had been hit with a blindness spell (the PC in question was very vocal about it...) so he called her over to his location (to get her out of the combat zone) and told her she could wait with him - but she figured he could point her at the combat and she could use her "breath weapon" on the bad guys. (Heavy Armor Alchemist with Breath Bombs Discovery)...
and so he did just that, pushed her around and pointed her at the badies and said "shot directly away from me".
after a round or two of this she commented something about having a "service animal" to guide her around... but she was real careful not to refer to him as a "dog" for fear that it might offend him...
Okay, Old Story time again.... (yeah, I'm bored at work again)...
One of the advantages of playing in PFS is the fact that you often play different players in the group - so you get to tell your jokes more than once and can polish them up so they sound great.
And I've pulled this scene several times now, with different PCs even...
In a scenario with a "local thug" encounter, where the PCs are confronted by "hired thugs" intended to warn them off of their research/drive them out of town/stop doing an investigation/ or whatever, we capture several of the thugs and are questioning them.
I'm not the kind of person who enjoys RPing Intimidate Checks, so I might do the Monty Python Spanish Inquisition "poke him with the sof cushion" for my Initiate skill, but if the judge has run several scenarios for some of me before, and knows how my PC deals with captured Mooks... he knows how my PC likes to handle the "Gather Information from the Thugs" checks (we often have several "new" Players in the group though). So the "interviews" go something like this....
Me in Character voice: "So Mook, we meet again!"
Judge in "Mook voice" as Mook #417: "Yeah, if'n I'd knowed it was yous, I might not've takkan dis job".
Me in PC voice: "and how's the wife? and the little mooks? three isn't it?"
Mook #417: "same oh-same oh, off visitin' her mum again in Durma, and the lil ones is growin' like weeds..."
Me: glancing at the other mooks - stabilized and waiting their turn "So, does the local Thugs Union have ok Medical benefits? Looks like you guys will need it. Wait, you're Rent-A-Thug aren't you?"
Mook #417: "Not w'at it used ta be I tell ya, w'at wit da cut backs and all. Eco'nam'c downturn day say... Had to switch over to Thugs-are-Us 'cause ah da co-pays and stuff."
Me: "Tell ya what Mook, I'll pop for a couple charges off my happy stick again when we're done here..."
Mook #417: "Hay, you're all ri't! T'anks!"
Me: "No problem! Least I can do. Now, about the guy who hired you..."
All this while the other players just watched. After all, I said when I sat down at the table that my guy was the "Face"...
Often, when I note to the judge that I was marking off a wand charge for each of the Mooks, one of the other players also offers to chip in on the healing... "heck, they put up a good fight for Mooks! I wouldn't mind working with them again!"
What? no one has any more funny stories? Heck - it's a Monday, we could really use some smiles people!
this one is some months old, as it took place at a Convention, when we were still doing those in person...
At a Tier 1-2 table for a certain Special with a Really Big Dragon on the roof a building the PCs have to get into... the PCs are hiding around the corner of the building (being 1st and 2nd level guys) - peeking around and trying to get up the nerve to run across the courtyard to the buildings entrance and avoid notice by the Dragon on the Roof.
Judge: "The dragon roars again, shaking dust from the roof eves that you are hiding under."
Cleric: "Anyone speak Draconic? I wonder what she keeps yelling about? Anyway, we need a distraction - something to draw the dragons attention away from the door before the rest of us run for it."
Rogue reply's: "Well... I have a chicken."
other players look at Rogue player: "????"
Rogue: "yeah, I picked one up - it's on my equipment sheet - see?" Hold up ITS pointing at the chicken entry.
Cleric to Rogue: "...and ... you're going to use it how?"
Rogue: "I'll throw it at the dragon. She wont be expecting that...."
Fighter: "...yeah, I sure wouldn't be expecting someone to pitch a chicken at me..."
Rogue: "yeah, I'll do that." Turning to judge: "So I run out to here in the courtyard and throw the chicken..."
At this moment the Overseer Judge announces over the loudspeakers that "the Really Big Dragon on the Roof" flies away. (totally unrelated to events at the Tier 1-2 table, but great timing!)
Table judge rolls with it: "Seeing the chicken flying in her direction, the Dragon leaps from the roof and with a crash of her gigantic jaws, snatch's it from the air. Doing a Wing-Over maneuver and with a snap of her huge leathery wings, the giant beast speeds away over the cities rooftops..."
Rogue player sits back with big smile on her face.
Cleric player looks at the table judge, at the Rogue player, then at the other players and says... "Heck, it looks like the dragon just wanted chicken take-out, this would have gone so much faster if someone had been able to speak Draconic..."
upon encountering a pair of Snake swarms, with a good Kn(Nature) roll I ask if they have Scent ability - they do, so I get to use an alchemical gimmick I have been wanting to try and toss a Flask of Noxious Aromatic and catch both swarms in the area! yeah! They both miss their Fort save, so the one I hit is Nauseated and the other is sickened....
(that's when I learn an important thing about swarms)
So - Nauseated - the swarm only gets a move action while it's puking....
(they don't have to roll an attack to hit you, just "swarm" over you!)
so the swarm moves over me - damage is done and I'm distracted (nauseated) too... all I have to say about it is....
And another funny story... (and here's the set up...
My wife runs a Pregnant Cleric (she says she's about 6 months along and that explains the DEX of 8) - and at the start of a fight her first action is to cast bless. You see, we were trying to NOT start the fight, and had been practicing non-aggression etc. and it seemed like a non-threatening spell to her... but the BBE responds by casting a create pit spell on her. She rolled a nat 20 Reflex and avoided it (her Reflex was +2 or something).
The cleric responded by casting blindness on him, and someone else hit him with a 1 minute deafened effect (thunder stone) - and things went down hill from there for him... anyway, after the fight, the captured thug is trying to talk his way out of being captured, saying that we should remove the blindness and free him 'cause we had "started it all!". My PC responds that not only had one of his guards drawn the first weapon (and first blood) HE had tried to throw a pregnant lady in a PIT! This got the judge to respond in character "She was Pregnant? I thought she was just fat!"
0.0
My response..."wow dude, I think your chances of getting that blindness spell turned off just went down."
Another fun 1E game - extra points if you recognize the scenario it is from...
Can I take 10 on intimidate:
Picture this:
The party of adventurers gather outside the targets hotel room door. The intention is to scare him away from doing something, to get him to leave town. We'd really like to do it without bloodshed.
The rogue checks the door for traps, finds an alarm and removes it, unlocks door, and steps to the back of the party. The Bard, in "misty" Mistmail steps to the door and, as the cleric swings open the door, steps into the room. Swirling her cape with a continual flame spell on the lining around to her back so the "flames" swirl up around her, she pulls a whip from her belt that bursts into flame (Hellfire trait). Looking at the target sitting on the bed, she points the whip at him and says:
"So, do we talk? or do we move on to other options?"
Target sees a Cheliaxian woman, clothed in fire & smoke, with a flaming whip that is scorching the carpet. Intimidate check? - ah, can I take 10?
